Buy someone else’s
Years ago, before Donald Trump became a politician, I remember him on TV counseling Iowa lottery winners on what to do with their winnings. They wanted to build their dream house. Trump said something like, “Don’t build your dream, buy someone else’s dream.” As with most advice, it can make sense… or not… depending on the circumstances. You can spend a huge amount of precious time, energy and money building your dream.
When we move into our new abode, it will be the 15th place we have called home. A few years after college, when we began our decades of serial home ownership we usually bought someone else’s dream. A prime example was our move to Winfield, Kansas. A couple who had lived in our subdivision in Cincinnati, and worked with me at GE, were transferred to Kansas. They spent the better part of a year waiting for their custom built dream house to be completed. Just when it was…. boom… they were transferred again. In we came behind them, buying their dream and moving in within weeks. It was a fantastic house. Trump’s advice was right on. We landed in a great house instead of spending months in temporary housing waiting and waiting. With four young children in tow, waiting was not ideal.
With a few other moves, we built. Spending long stints in hotels or temporary apartments… only to move again within a couple years.
Or maybe not
So here we are again, for the last time. Building. Certainly, we could have bought the showcase model of the very home we decided to have constructed. But this time, being our last home ever, building seemed so worth the wait.
Waiting… for just the right view.
Outside and inside. Every single thing we shall see, purposely chosen. Some things big… the Michigan room and extended deck facing the trees. Some things small… the bronze of every handle and hinge. The unique… the natural gas fired pizza oven out back. Extravagances… the bathroom expanded for a jacuzzi deep soaking tub with fireplace nestled into the wall. (Ok, a fireplace in a bathroom has been done before… but it is still so cool). Or expansive… just the right color Spalted Wych Elm plank flooring almost everywhere on the main level. The blue neutral paint throughout, the hi-light colors, the stain on the wood trim, the type of windows. Even the color of the ceilings… a choice. Everywhere… a choice.
Sometimes you don’t build your dream, you buy someone else’s dream.
And sometimes, you build… and wait.
